Davis Gaines performed the title role in Andrew Lloyd Webbers The Phantom of the Opera more than 2,000 times, for over five million people, during his run on Broadway, in Los Angeles and San Francisco, where he received the Bay Area Critics Award for Best Actor.

Subsequently, he was chosen by Hal Prince and Lloyd Webber to play the leading role in the world premiere of Whistle Down the Wind in Washington, D.C. Other Broadway and national tour credits include Raoul in The Phantom of the Opera, Cornelius Hackl in Hello, Dolly! with Carol Channing, Camelot with Richard Burton and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas with Alexis Smith. Gaines Off-Broadway appearances include Des McAnuffs The Death of Von Richthofen as Witnessed From Earth, the Maury Yeston/Larry Gelbart musical One Two Three Four Five, Stephen Sondheims Assassins, She Loves Me and Forbidden Broadway. He made his New York City Opera debut in The New Moon and appeared in New York in concert versions of Sitting Pretty, The Cat and the Fiddle, Pippin and the Encores production of The Boys From Syracuse. He appeared in Damn Yankees as Joe Hardy directed by the legendary George Abbott, in Arsenic and Old Lace as Mortimer Brewster opposite Kate Reid, in The Rink with Lainie Kazan and in Two Into One with Tony Randall. Gaines played the sailor, Anthony Hope, in the 20th anniversary concert productions of Sondheims Sweeney Todd in Los Angeles, London, New York, San Francisco and at Ravinia Festival.

Film work includes a featured role in Warlock: The Armageddon with Julian Sands and television credits include Chicago Hope, Veronicas Closet, Bodies of Evidence and Murder, She Wrote. He appeared in three PBS Great Performances broadcasts (the Emmy Award-winning Sweeney Todd with the San Francisco Symphony, Broadway Originals with the Boston Pops and Jerry Hermans Broadway at the Bowl), as well as the televised specials of the 1994 Kennedy Center Honors and the opening ceremony of the 1998 Goodwill Games. Additionally, Gaines has sung for five U.S. Presidents and with every major symphony orchestra in North America, including the New York Pops at Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra at the Hollywood Bowl. He has also performed in cabaret at New Yorks Rainbow and Stars, Hollywoods Cinegrill and San Franciscos Plush Room. His voice can be heard on 30 cast recordings and compilation albums, as well as two solo CDs on LAP Records, Against the Tide and All My Tomorrows: Songs of Sammy Cahn.